According to a class action suit filed last week, Cindy Mccormick, Ronald Mccormick and Trupp Land Management, LLC alleged HRM Resources, LLC, Painted Pegasus Pretroleum, LLC and various individuals wrongfully avoided legally required clean-up obligations at a number of oil and gas wells in Colorado.
The case was filed in District Court in Adams County, Colorado. The plaintiffs were represented by Richards Carrington, LLC, ClientEarth USA, Inc. and Borison Firm, LLC.
“Although this case raises several legal questions of first impression, the requested relief is simple: We ask only that the oil and gas companies who come into Colorado respect the same principles that every Coloradan knows and follows when we camp, hike, and explore our beautiful state – if you pack it in, pack it out,” wrote Christopher Carrington to Law Week via email.
Without the court’s intervention, the lawsuit explained, the plaintiffs will remain at risk of both economic and physical harm from hundreds of oil and gas wells unlawfully abandoned on their properties.
According to the lawsuit, Colorado’s Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act “protects creditors when debtors transfer away assets or liabilities in an effort to hinder, delay or defraud the creditor’s ability to collect on a claim.”
Oil and gas operators are required to plug up and restore lands when the wells are no longer being utilized for production or it is no longer reasonable for the wells to burden surface owners’ property, the lawsuit noted.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege approximately 200 oil and gas wells were fraudulently transferred by HRM to Painted Pegasus Petroleum. The plaintiffs allege the transfer caused the wells to become “orphaned” or unplugged, non-producing wells with no responsible owner.
Plaintiffs requested the court certify the proposed class, appoint the named plaintiffs as representatives of the class and appoint the plaintiffs’ counsel as counsel for the class.
They also requested the court to find the defendants’ failure to promptly plug, reclaim and remediate its abandoned wells on the plaintiffs’ properties constitutes continuing trespass entitling plaintiffs to an injunction or other relief.
The plaintiffs requested the court award them damages arising from the defendants’ torts and declare the transfer from HRM to Painted Pegasus constitutes a fraudulent transfer as defined by CUFTA.
They also asked the court to reimpose the plugging, reclamation and remediation obligations associated with the wells or otherwise avoid the transfer to the extent necessary to satisfy their claims.
Trial by jury was demanded for all causes of action so triable.